Need advice; car behind on payments

[GadflyII]

Hi there,

My little sister got laid off a few months ago, and she has fallen 45 days behind on her car payments. I have no experence with this, since I have bought almost all of my cars cash. (except for my wife's Honda Pilot).

She needs to sell the car, but she owes more than it is worth. She has decided to turn the car in, before her credit gets anymore tore up. She has already tried to work with the finance company, but they just are not willing to do anything that will help her out.

So my question is this, Do car finance companies allow short sales? I know that mortgage companies will allow you to sell the home for less than is owed, to aviod the expense of forecloser, Do they do the same thing for car loans? to aviod the expense of repossesion and auction, sueing for the diffrence, and collection?

If you don't know, please don't speculate. Just looking for people that have experence with these matters.

Cheers

[freakray]

Well, when your sister brought the car she could have brought insurance that would have frozen the payments in the event she became unemployed, I have done that before.

How much is the difference between what is owed and what the value of the car is?
That could also factor in to the situation, keep in mind that paying off a loan as a lump sum usually equates to less to pay then the amount you're paying off over 'X' number of months.
She needs to contact the finance company and find out what the settlement amount is on her car, that will tell her how much the real difference is if she were to sell the car and hand over the money instead.

[grrltoy]

possible a small personal loan?

[GadflyII]

Originally Posted by grrltoy

possible a small personal loan?

She tried that, but with no paycheck.... no bank was willing to do it.

[freakray]

Is there no way you could help her out?

Sign on a loan with her or get the load and have her pay you back?

Some way just to get her out of trouble for now?

[CraigFL]

The first thing she should do is talk with the leinholder. They might be willing to carry her for a while until she gets another job. The worst thing is to not talk with the people you got the loan from and try to solve the problem yourself.